TOKYO — As Sunisa Lee prepared to begin her floor routine, she knew she was 90 seconds from an improbable gold medal in what had become a wide-open women’s all-around competition.
From across the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, looking down from the front row, were her non-competing American teammates, including Simone Biles, whose decision to withdraw from an event she had dominated for nearly a decade, broke the competition wide open.
A host of gymnasts who arrived in Tokyo with little realistic hope of winning more than silver were now in the hunt for the most prestigious championship in gymnastics — Olympic all-around.